the eyebrow post

I get annoyed when R comes home from the barber who's trimmed his eyebrows. I like wild and shaggy eyebrows on men.

So... what about women?

When I was growing up, I remember that my mother had a steel comb for grooming her eyebrows. She was brunette. Maybe because my eyebrows were white-blond, she didn't bother to pass along eyebrow advice. Not till I was in my 20s did I realize that some woman plucked their eyebrows. (Ouch.) I decided I would never have to do anything like that because mine were hardly visible. Even if I shaped them, who would notice?

It never occurred to me that I might make my eyebrows more visible with eyebrow pencil, but a few years ago, a friend's mother told me I should. I was curious enough to buy an eyebrow pencil. I chose light brown because that was as far as I wanted to venture into Frida Kahlo territory. Except then, in front of the mirror, I balked. Was I supposed to draw an eyebrow over my unruly eyebrow hair? That would look crazy. I would have to shape ie get rid of some white-blond hair first. So no, that wasn't a good idea. Also, when I did draw eyebrows, I looked ridiculous. Frankensteinish.

I used to get comments from women, where I worked, who were more makeup savvy. They experienced much pain to shape and groom their eyebrows and felt that I should too. There were stories about tweezers. Wax that ripped out the hair (plus a layer of skin). There was threading. I'm still not clear how threading works, but it's apparently less painful. I'm not sure if threading is related to one woman's eyebrows that they were entwined with metal thread. I believe that was decorative. It didn't look comfortable, but she was glossy-magazine-cover beautiful.

So I've never done anything with my eyebrows. More recently, however, as the hair on my head is turning white, my white-blond eyebrows are also turning white, and age-white is more wiry than blond-white. I'm going wild and shaggy! Not yet sure what to do about that, but I suspect I'll do nothing.